Press Releases

B.A.S.E. DAYCARE PROGRAM AND SPIRITUAL COMMUNITY ANIMATION SERVICE WIN PLAY IT FAIR! AWARD

MONTREAL JANUARY 30, 2018 – The English Montreal School Board’s B.A.S.E. Daycare Program and Spiritual Community Animation Service received the Equitas— International Centre for Human Rights Education—National Play it Fair! award at Vincent Massey Collegiate on Monday, January 29 during a celebration with children and youth.

Annually, Equitas acknowledges a Canadian organization, school or municipality with an award that promotes the advancement of human rights education. Equitas Associate Director of Progarms Julie Kon Kam King, and Yuval Hananayer of TD Canada Trust were at Vincent Massey Collegiate (VMC) to present Jennifer De Freitas, Project Development Officer with B.A.S.E, and Rocco Speranza, Spiritual and Community Animator, with their awards. Students will receive awards at the end of the school year.

The EMSB’s Play it Fair! initiative was selected out of 180 schools across Canada. “This project was chosen due to its innovative and unique model which includes integrating high school, elementary, and daycare students. It shows great potential for fostering leadership,” said Kon Kam King.

The EMSB was chosen for its Supporting Children as Leaders Through Play it Fair! initiative. This program has been offered in 10 daycares over three years, touching over 600 B.A.S.E. Daycare children and 55 students from Vincent Massey Collegiate (VMC). This year, eight daycares are benefiting from the program and engaging 27 VMC students via the Spiritual and Community Animation Service.

Play It Fair! leads to projects that raise awareness on how to make schools more inclusive and welcoming places to be. Examples of projects that the VMC students helped the B.A.S.E. children create include: movie trailers on respect for diversity and inclusive environments, a photo slideshow on children’s rights, poster campaigns to celebrate children’s differences, a story book on respecting the environment and anti-bullying games.

“The B.A.S.E. program puts a lot of emphasis on nurturing and expanding partnerships in order to benefit the children to their greatest potential”, said De Freitas. “A project like the Supporting Children as Leaders through Play it Fair! Program gave everyone involved the opportunity to develop a tailor-made project for B.A.S.E. that merged its goal of providing children with enriching and educational experiences with the Play it Fair! values and with the Spiritual Care and Community Involvement Service Virtues Curriculum, which meets Vincent Massey Collegiate's community service requirements. Students of various ages don’t often get the opportunity to interact with each other. This program provides an excellent opportunity to foster leadership skills.”

“The Spiritual and Community Animation Service allows the promotion of values such as cooperation, unity, inclusion, leadership, respect for diversity, acceptance, kindness and peaceful conflict resolution amongst our students,” said Speranza. “The Play it Fair program further encourages the development of these aforementioned values. It’s a great honour to be recognized for our work in the schools.”